Iran Sanctions and New Canada Tariffs Split Monday's Tape as Wall Street Waits on Nvidia and Jackson Hole

by Tomas Ferreira · August 24, 2026

Markets Reporter, US Market Current

U.S. equities pulled in two directions as Monday's session got under way, and the split ran along the technology fault line. Yahoo Finance's live market blog, which it refreshes through the trading day, showed the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher while the Nasdaq composite and the Russell 2000 traded lower in the first hour, with the S&P 500 slightly negative between them. Charles Schwab's 9:05 a.m. ET market note described the major indexes as lower in early trading before paring some of the decline. The session remains open as of late morning, and no closing levels exist yet; the figures below are intraday or, where noted, Friday's settled closes.

The direction of the split is the tell. Money was moving out of the technology complex that dominates the Nasdaq and toward the narrower, more industrial roster that drives the Dow — a rotation that can leave the S&P 500 close to unchanged even as the two headline indexes move opposite ways. Where the tape settles will depend on the afternoon, and this account does not attempt to anticipate it.

Yahoo Finance attributed the Nasdaq's underperformance to a cluster of headlines rather than a single catalyst: new U.S. economic sanctions on Iran that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to detail, the breakdown of U.S.-Canada trade talks and the reciprocal tariff threats that followed, and caution ahead of Nvidia's earnings report and the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium.

The last settled numbers are Friday's, and that session looked better than the week it closed out. The S&P 500 finished at 7,674.37, up 33.21 points or 0.43%; the Dow at 53,277.01, up 517.80 points or 0.98%; the Nasdaq composite at 26,180.45, up 113.29 points or 0.43%; and the small-cap Russell 2000 at 3,017.87, up 25.44 points or 0.85%. All four still posted losses for the week after the bond-market selloff, and the Associated Press noted that Friday marked only the second gain in six sessions for the S&P 500 since its most recent record high.

The bond market, which drove the story for most of last week, was calmer Monday morning. The AP reported that the 10-year Treasury yield was 4.72% in Monday trading, easing from 4.73% late Friday, which had matched its highest point in more than a year; Schwab's 9:05 a.m. ET note put the 10-year at 4.71%, down 0.03 percentage point. The AP described the 30-year yield as climbing and sitting near its highest level since 2007. This article does not quote a specific 30-year level, because the only figure available for it came from a continuously updating data page that carries no fixed as-of time.

That leaves the long end where it has been all month: elevated. The AP noted that the Treasury bond-buyback expansion Bessent announced on Aug. 19 was intended to bring long-term rates down but has so far delivered only temporary relief.

The Iran headline hanging over Monday's trading is an announcement that had not been delivered when stocks opened. NPR reported Aug. 24 that Bessent is expected to unveil a new round of economic sanctions on Iran, an initiative President Trump has called an "economic D-Day" and that Bessent has described as the "single greatest financial offensive ever." Per NPR, the measures are aimed at governments and countries providing financial support to Tehran, not only at individual businesses. NPR also reported that Iran's security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, vowed Iran would retaliate in a "seismic manner," warned that Iran would target oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and said that "not even a single drop of oil will leave the region," and that the Iranian rial has fallen to record lows in anticipation of the sanctions.

Crude was not pricing in an escalation premium Monday morning. The AP reported Brent crude at $91.06 a barrel, down 1.7%, and the U.S. benchmark at $85.18, down 2.2%, in Monday trading. Schwab's 9:05 a.m. ET note listed West Texas Intermediate at $85.59, down $1.47 or 1.69%. The readings differ because they were taken at different moments of an open session, but the direction was consistent across both: lower, even as the sanctions announcement approached.

The trade story is more concrete. Fifty percent U.S. tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday, Aug. 22, Al Jazeera reported, after three days of negotiations in Washington collapsed late Friday. Al Jazeera put the affected trade at about 5% of Canada's exports. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said Canada will match the duties dollar for dollar, with the retaliatory measures scheduled to take effect Sept. 8 — a date still ahead, not in force.

The rest of the week is dense, and all of it lies ahead. Kiplinger's economic calendar shows the July personal consumption expenditures price index, the second estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product and July durable goods orders all scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday, with the Conference Board's August consumer confidence reading due Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET. Nvidia will report results for its fiscal 2027 second quarter, which ended July 26, 2026, after Wednesday's close on Aug. 26, according to the company's own conference-call announcement. The Kansas City Fed's Jackson Hole symposium runs Aug. 27-29, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is scheduled to deliver the keynote at about 10 a.m. ET Friday, per a Tech Times preview and Kiplinger's calendar.